Liquid discharge apparatus

• US 10,328,698 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2018
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Mizuno, Taisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Mruk, Geoffrey S
• Application Number:
  US15/933,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20190092013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 459 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/14072 Electrical connections, e.g. details on electrodes, connecting the chip to the outside...
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/14233 of film type, deformed by bending and disposed on a diaphragm
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/161 of film type, deformed by bending and disposed on a diaphragm
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1623 bonding and adhesion
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2002/14491 Electrical connection
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2202/18 Electrical connection established using vias

Abstract

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a channel substrate; a first substrate; a piezoelectric element; a spacer, which is provided on a surface of the first substrate on which the piezoelectric element is disposed; a second substrate; and a bump electrode, wherein the spacer is provided between the bump electrode and the piezoelectric element and attached to at least one of the first and second substrates by an adhesive, and wherein both a space on a side of the piezoelectric element with respect to the spacer and a space on a side of the bump electrode with respect to the spacer are opened by at least one of a portion other than a portion of the spacer positioned between the piezoelectric element and the bump electrode and an opening provided in at least one of the first and second substrates.

Claims

1. A liquid discharge apparatus comprising:

a channel substrate, which has a pressure chamber communicating with a nozzle;

a first substrate, which is disposed on the channel substrate;

a piezoelectric element, which is disposed on the first substrate so as to correspond to the pressure chamber;

a spacer, which is provided on a surface of the first substrate on which the piezoelectric element is disposed;

a second substrate, which is stacked over the first substrate with the spacer interposed therebetween; and

a bump electrode, which communicates with the piezoelectric element and electrically connects a first terminal provided on the first substrate with a second terminal provided on the second substrate,

wherein the spacer is provided between the bump electrode and the piezoelectric element and attached to at least one of the first and second substrates by an adhesive,

wherein both a space on a side of the piezoelectric element with respect to the spacer and a space on a side of the bump electrode with respect to the spacer are opened by at least one of a portion other than a portion of the spacer positioned between the piezoelectric element and the bump electrode and an opening provided in at least one of the first and second substrates,

wherein the spacer includes a pair of first wall portions extending in an arrangement direction in which a plurality of piezoelectric elements are arranged and a pair of second wall portions extending in an orthogonal direction to the arrangement direction so as to surround the bump electrode or the piezoelectric element, and

wherein the opening is provided in at least one of the second wall portions and one of the pair of first wall portions, which is provided at the opposite side of the piezoelectric element with respect to the bump electrode.

2. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the opening is provided at a part of the at least one of the second wall portions and the one of the pair of first wall portions.

3. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the opening is provided at one second wall portion of the pair of second wall portions, and

wherein, in adjacent spacers among a plurality of spacers, the opening is provided at the other second wall portion of the pair of second wall portions.

4. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the opening is provided at a position of one second wall portion of the pair of second wall portions which is closer to the center of a plurality of spacers arranged in the orthogonal direction.

5. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the spacer includes a first wall portion extending in an arrangement direction along which the plurality of piezoelectric elements are arranged, and

wherein, in the first wall portion disposed on the side of the piezoelectric element with respect to the bump electrode, the width of the first wall portion in an orthogonal direction to the arrangement direction is larger than the width of the first wall portion disposed at the opposite side of the piezoelectric element with respect to the bump electrode.

6. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the spacer includes a first wall portion extending in an arrangement direction in which the plurality of piezoelectric elements are arranged,

wherein the piezoelectric element includes a discrete electrode provided for each of the piezoelectric elements, a common electrode provided across the plurality of piezoelectric elements, and a piezoelectric body interposed between the discrete electrode and the common electrode, and

wherein, in the first wall portion disposed between the piezoelectric element and the bump electrode electrically connected to the discrete electrode, the width of the first wall portion in an orthogonal direction to the arrangement direction is larger than the width of the first wall portion disposed between the piezoelectric element and the bump electrode electrically connected to the common electrode.

7. A liquid discharge apparatus comprising:

a channel substrate, which has a pressure chamber communicating with a nozzle;

a first substrate, which is disposed on the channel substrate;

a piezoelectric element, which is disposed on the first substrate so as to correspond to the pressure chamber;

a spacer, which is provided on a surface of the first substrate on which the piezoelectric element is disposed;

a second substrate, which is stacked over the first substrate with the spacer interposed therebetween; and

a bump electrode, which communicates with the piezoelectric element and electrically connects a first terminal provided on the first substrate with a second terminal provided on the second substrate,

wherein the spacer is provided between the bump electrode and the piezoelectric element and attached to at least one of the first and second substrates by an adhesive,

wherein both a space on a side of the piezoelectric element with respect to the spacer and a space on a side of the bump electrode with respect to the spacer are opened by at least one of a portion other than a portion of the spacer positioned between the piezoelectric element and the bump electrode and an opening provided in at least one of the first and second substrates,

wherein the spacer is provided to continuously surround the bump electrode or the piezoelectric element, and

wherein the opening is provided at a portion within a range surrounded by the spacer in at least one of the first and second substrates, to communicate the space surrounded by the spacer with the outside of the space.

8. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the opening is a through hole provided in the at least one of the first and second substrates between the bump electrode and the spacer.

9. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the opening is a through hole provided at each of four corners of a rectangular internal space surrounded by the spacer in the first substrate or the second substrate.